Walking the Black River Valley: the wine route.
Tourism in Black River and Neuquén is spreading beyond their traditional offerings.
The wine and culture step between traditional bids are opened and are an increasingly sought after by visitors product.
All wine regions of the world have generated strategies and promote wine to show this activity, which is much more than an economic and agricultural reality.
It is an activity that prints a strong cultural and social identity that people develop about winemaking. In fact, last year, the demand for tourist excursions related to wine grew 40% over 2002.
Why bet with wine tourism, then? What added value involves adding wine tourism business proposals? These questions had to face some wineries deciding to open their doors to visitors. Moreover when it involves heavy investment in infrastructure and skills.
The government of the province of Black River has integrated the four exporting wineries rionegrinas a promotional plan that seeks to strengthen the presence of boundaries in rionegrinos wines to project more strongly to the outside.
The aim of the winemakers is to add the high quality wines and gastronomic tourism to integrate the activities that give identity to the region and position Black River as a wine producing area of excellence.
The "Group of Producers and Exporters of Wines of Black River" is made by wineries Humberto Canale, Noemía Patagonian Steppe and Infinitus.
The growth of exports in the sector is even more striking: in the 90 sparsely Argentina exported 3.5 million dollars in 2005 reached more than 400 million dollars this year and continues to grow.
The wine sector in the province consists of 30 wineries.
Humberto Canale Winery.
Humberto Canale Wineries are a family business founded as Wine Establishment in 1913.
The winery has the latest and most advanced techniques to produce a wine of international quality that has earned international awards.
It has a capacity of about 6 million liters and has 145 own vineyard acres with selected clones of the best European varieties. Produced 13,500 quintals between Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Malbec and Sauvignon red wines, Torrontes, Chardonnay and Semillon white wines.
The production of white wines with controlled cold fermentation and traditional craftsmanship in the great red with prolonged maceration. La Bodega Humberto Canale has become the most important expression of the wines from cold areas.
It offers guided tours to tour the entire facility, both in the vineyards and in the fields of production and bottling visits.
The winery is located on the farm 186 National Road No. 22 is taken up to the intersection with Humberto Canale and then deviates to the left (right access to JJ Gómez) and be traveled 4 km. The property is recognized by a large barrel near the entrance.
Visiting hours:
Monday to Friday from 9am to 11am. and from 16 to 17h.
Contact:
TE (02941) 430415 - 430882.
e-mail: hcanale@arnet.com.ar
Bodega Agrestis.
Among his most important production is the Champagne NG Nature, prepared by the traditional method of fermentation in the bottle, with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which was part of the first export of this winery in the United States in 2006.
The establishment, operating since 1992, is owned by Norberto Ghirardelli and installed a couple of miles of rock.
The vineyards were planted in 1994 with imported vines from France. Among the varieties is the winery produces Chardonnay and Pinot noir to champagne and Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which are red varieties for the production of fine wine varietals.
The winery offers tours at its facilities located in Gobernador Castello 1800, 227 farm town of General Roca visits. These visits are pre-patterned.
Contact:
Tel: 02941-15641269
E-mail: ventas@bodegaagrestis.com.ar
web: www.bodegaagrestis.com.ar
Winery and Vineyards of Patagonia (Domaine Vistalba)
This winery was established in the area of JJ Gómez in 2001, which also owns the winery La Sarita.
It is a company of French capital in recent years landed in the Upper Valley for the production of fine wines with the "Infinitus".
The firm also has two wineries in Mendoza and one in Black River, which annually produces about 800,000 bottles of red and white wine.
Contact:
TE (02941) - 428040.
